There is … You create your own account, market and publicise the ‘share link’ and have the funds deposited straight to your Sqn bank.
Guess that’d do it
Que Father Ted…
“THE MONEY WAS ONLY RESTING IN MY ACCOUNT”
Apparently one of our big ticket fund raising items has disappeared, so how do you do yours?
Mostly bag packs, now with a go-cardless terminal as less cash carried these days. Gift Aid registration enables claiming on such donations (as well as subscription payments) which provides a boost.
1 Like
1 Like
Is this not just the GPF, but now with an increased ability to decline funding requests?
2 Likes
Could you suggest any please sir?
My unit isn’t affected by this, but many units have not only lost their income from this but have lost significant goodwill from the local community. In a rural community, severely annoying and inconveniencing the organisers of the local fair is a death sentence for future engagement.
I appreciate from what you say that the sudden nature of the stop comes from the Commandant refusing to implement your orders, but ultimately it’s your orders that have caused such damage to community relations, albeit you gave the order with good intentions of protecting cadets. As such I would expect you to also provide support and ideas on rebuilding those relationships rather than just telling people to find alternative methods.
4 Likes
430+ threads about this!! Flabbergasted that some never give up! I never knew ACP stood for Air Cadet Parking!
There are EASY ways to get far more cash than standing about pointing at cars being smiled at.
Being seen in the public and the community brings us all a sense of pride by showing the uniform, it may bring in a few cadets but this thread is at grass roots about losing a fundraising opportunity.
In my 22 years as OC and Sector Commander I am proud to boast I have brought in excess of £50k in fundraising. And never once donned a hi-his ves!
Your local MP has a local community pot: £500 per year
Your local councillor has a local community pot: £500 per year
Your local Police constabulary has a local community pot: £500 per year.
National Lottery grants take some time but £10k is achievable, don’t re-invent the wheel, use someone’s successful application and tweak it.
Masons prefer to give equipment rather than cash: 2-3 laptops a year or fund a trip.
Lions Club prefer to give equipment rather than cash: First Aid training stuff.
Rotary Club prefer to give equipment rather than cash: Leadership (MTA kit), AT equipment.
If there is a major building project going on in your area, then they have Cooperate Social Responsibility and must set aside a sizable fund for local community groups. (Hinckley Point gave £3000 of AT equipment to an employee who was an CFAV)
Supermarkets have a local community funding program, that brings in £thousands.
Large companies have Cooperate Social Responsibility and happily hand out hundreds.
5-6 letters a year = £many hundreds if not thousands = thank you photos.
The same letter each year and I easily brough in £3-4K worth of cash or equipment followed by a shake and pose photo for their publicity.
OR…you can make this 500 threads by the end of the week and have wasted that time instead of writing a letter.
3 Likes
I commend you for £50,000 over 22 years…
As a Sqn OC for 11 i netted in excess of £120,000. Using the same methods you outlined.
However.
This still only was an average of just over £10k per year.
Completely insufficent to regenerate the units i ran at the scale they became and with the forward vision i set them.
With Subs contributing an average of £8600 for each of those years - an average mind. I would have still been short ready cash.
A mix of car parking and bag packs (split roughly evenly) brought in an extra average of £16,000 per year.
This money was “unalocated” as in not specified against items in a grant or a pre assigned capital item. Thereby giving myaelf and thr civcom the complete flexibility to develop the Sqn.
Again. I applaud your efforts, but in my experience the most succesful and growing units need to maximise their portfolio of fund generation and for us car parking was until this essential.
We now HAVE to fill that gap or cut back.
This clearly is not understood by the CoC.
Subs or grants or letter writing alone is insufficent.
There are units who will founder as a result of this.
Either because they simply cannot replace the money or because the staff and civ com cant for whatever reason replace the income.
This is a huge issue.
2 Likes
You are one of the lucky ones Ok, in the town my units in, only one supermarket small, no lions or rotary club, so all local clubs ar chasing the same funds.
Also any organisation that does grants in most cases do not permit request for funds to replace old and out dated equipment.
3 Likes
Not all squadrons are as lucky as yours to have these endless sources of income.
2 Likes
All towns will have something - will it be year on year for the same one, likely not but that doesn’t means it not there.
What’s your finance budget, what are the must haves, what the the nice to haves, what are the dreams. Different ones will be different fundraising. Whether that’s grants, approaching companies (still jealous of the next Sqn along who wrote to Airfix and just said any chance of getting some donated and got 50 kits!)
For me - step one is sorting out your civilian Comittee - you need a strong one as the stress, paperwork, application should come from them. So work needs to go into them, whether that’s getting rid of toxic people on them, or making it more attractive to volunteers. From there you can tell them your priorities and they can do a good chunk of the work.
It doesn’t all need to be grants but here’s a whole range (appreciate some have been mentioned)
The National Lottery Community Fund - Provides funding for community groups and projects that improve health, education and the environment.
The Heritage Lottery Fund - Supports projects that conserve the UK’s diverse heritage.
Arts Council England - Offers grants for arts and cultural activities.
Sport England - Provides funding to community sport and physical activity projects.
Big Lottery Fund - Offers funding to projects that improve communities and the lives of people within them.
The Foyle Foundation - Supports smaller charities in areas such as arts and learning. The Tudor Trust - Provides grants to smaller community-led groups that support positive changes in people’s lives.
The Esmée Fairbairn Foundation - Offers grants to a wide range of organizations for activities in the arts, children and young people, the environment, food and social change.
Garfield Weston Foundation - Supports UK registered charities in fields such as arts, education, welfare, health, and community.
The Henry Smith Charity - Provides grants to grassroots community groups working with disadvantaged people and communities.
The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust - Funds projects related to peace and security, power and accountability, rights and justice, sustainable future, and northern Ireland.
The Paul Hamlyn Foundation* - Provides support for arts, education, and social change projects.
Peabody Community Fund - Funds community projects that make a difference to the lives of Peabody residents.
Power to Change - Offers grants to community businesses to create positive economic, social, and environmental change.
The Clothworkers’ Foundation - Provides grants to improve the lives of people and communities, particularly those facing disadvantage.
The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation - Funds capital projects in various sectors including community, education, health, and social welfare.
The Baring Foundation - Supports arts and mental health, strengthening civil society, and other causes.
The Rank Foundation - Supports projects that encourage leadership and community development.
Greggs Foundation - Provides funding towards environmental and community projects.
Key Fund - Offers blended finance (loans and grants) to community and social enterprises in the North of England.
. The Wolfson Foundation - Awards grants to support and promote excellence in the fields of science, health, education, and the arts & humanities.
The Allen Lane Foundation - Funds community groups working with marginalized groups and communities.
Trusthouse Charitable Foundation - Provides grants for smaller charitable and not-for-profit organizations in the UK.
The Sylvia Waddilove Foundation UK - Provides grants to organizations in the fields of education, the visual and performing arts, medical research, the relief of disability and severe illness, the preservation of buildings of architectural or historical significance, and the accommodation of those in need.
The David & Elaine Potter Foundation - Supports projects in education, research, civil rights, and other areas of long-term importance to society.
I’ll settle now as I could go down (if I haven’t already 
) a fundraising rabbit hole - after all the above is just grants.
But managing / supporting your Civ Com is vital - it’s a major major part of their role.
3 Likes
My squadron has a barely existent Civ Com. We regularly post in the squadron comms channels and during AGMs that were looking for new committee members, but I don’t think we’ve had a single member join off the back of that.
Might be worthy of a separate thread now for Civ Coms and funding sources, but what are the magic words for civ com recruitment? 
Done.
Quite possibly if a Squadron can develop a close relationship with their local lodge.
We’ve donated annually to one particular Squadron for several years consecutively - although admittedly this was started by me being an ex-Cadet and proposing the Sqn.
1 Like
Quite simply:
Each and every Year : Yes (If you ask nicely!)
Every Sqn in the area: Probably not…but does every Sqn ask anyway?..probably not?
And if there isn’t a nuclear power station, or other major project nearby?: Is there a new housing development/supermarket?
Not all squadrons are as lucky as yours to have these endless sources of income: ALL UK Sqn’s have potential sources of income, it’s just a case of asking.
The easiest way not to get alternative income is to continue to moan about the way it was always done and not investigate other options. Get over It!!
2 Likes
When I find it il post some of what we did, when I joined the Sqn we didn’t have a Comittee (which I didn’t think was allowed ) but we now have 7 active members, include a change in Treasurer and Chairman who helped us set it up and then moved on (as was the plan when they joined it)
- I’m in out signal atm which is possibly why I can’t find the new thread on Civ Coms
Think it has been mentioned here already but Easyfundraising as an app has been brilliant for us as a Squadron alongside the “traditional gift aid”. We got everyone onboarded that we could at one of the awards evenings and since then have done strategic parental reminders. January & September for the summer holiday bookings as usually with a lot of the travel companies its round the 1% mark for donation. A family going on holiday they could easily raise £20.00 if not more and if that is replicated across 30 cadet families, there is £600.00 for something that they were going to book anyway.
We have also “targeted” favourite brands like E-bay and Just-Eat as mainly although small donations such as on average £0.10 per takeaway across a squadron and across a year that can raise a fair bit. Another favourite is to target the Christmas shopping, making sure they are going via the app before clicking on the link. Parents last year raised over £1500 through the app just by buying things they would have bought in any case. For us that a good 4 bag packs without having to lift a finger. It just needs a bit of gentle persuasion and the occasional reminder but I find when you can show it in the grand scheme of fundraising and what that has been spent on, it helps with the selling of the app, for us that was 2 flight sim packages (nothing special).
On joining, the parents get the bank details for the standing order, a gift aid form and on the bank details their is the link to Easyfundrasing with a QR code too. It is a simple format but when they can see the difference it makes and for them it doesn’t cost anything so they are more than happy to “donate”
1 Like